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I'm running to represent District 15's 30,000 or so residents at the state Capitol in Little Rock. Among other things, state legislators budget how the state will spend taxpayer dollars each year, vote on new state laws, and decide whether to change existing state laws. Within that role, I'd stand up for a community that's being ignored by the state, protect our voting rights, and work to make life better instead of worse, the opposite of what's been happening in Arkansas for the past decade.

Most of my 16-year career has been spent as a newspaper reporter, covering city, county and state governments across the country, including several years here in Northwest Arkansas. I've also worked in the nonprofit space and am currently a small business owner. Through the years, I've spoken to countless government officials, experts and everyday people about issues like housing, health care, immigration, the economy and the environment. I've learned a lot, I have a lot of ideas about how things can work better, and this role would be on familiar terrain. But being a journalist also gave me the rarest of skills among politicians: I can shut up and listen.

Something that would happen immediately is that I would use this position to speak up for Rogers -- seniors, veterans, immigrants, hungry families, all of my neighbors who have been abandoned or persecuted by our federal and state government. Our current representative isn't sticking up for us at all. But more specifically, my first goal is to push for the end of the forced partnership that the state requires between local law enforcement and ICE. Working with these thugs is a mistake that hurts our community and makes all of us less safe, whether we're immigrants or not.